- "It properly feels like Basics again," said a face from the middle of the dance floor. He was referring to the fact the 20-year-old Back To Basics night has nicely settled into a new home having just left the rough and ready My House. That place, frankly, was a shit hole, with punter grievances aplenty. At Back To Basics' new home, The Warehouse, people seemed much happier; the party seemed at ease with itself in a more natural environment.
Why are they smiling? It might've been the throwback, stripped down '90s house coming through the Funktion One stacks, it might be the intense cauldron like dance floor or it might just be the fact there the toilets are clean and the bars are accessible. But, importantly, they are. Not least Tristan da Cunha, who was in the DJ booth, hovering a few feet above the main dance floor and bouncing wildly. He's the club's long standing resident, and warmed us to boiling point with plenty of raw, bare 4/4.
Though people worried the intimacy of My House would be sorely missed in this new, larger space, Da Cunha did a fine job of bringing everyone together. Looking around at 1 AM and every girl, boy, man and woman (such was the diversity of this night) was dancing, from those looking on from the bar down one side to those losing it on raised platforms at the back via the requisite iPhoners pressed right up to Da Cunha at the front.
Where your every second move was interrupted at the old club by someone trying to squeeze past, at The Warehouse there is space to dance; space to get lost in yourself and in the sounds (though there is also the more compact and bijou second Loft room which, on this night, hosted talents like Johnny Cade and his deeper offerings should you have needed it). With Back to Basics banners and acid smileys hanging from the high ceiling, neon strip lights dripping down the walls and a really quite aggressive ice cannon all made for an increasingly intense atmosphere. Founder Dave Beer did what he often does and, at around 2 AM, accosted a microphone to announce the arrival of headliner Kerri Chandler. In response, the floor surged forward as the New Jersey man went to work remoulding the room as his own.
Most standout about his set was the way it changed pace in an instant, switching from one style to another without any kinks. From Balearic-licked cuts like "Guitarra G" from Banda Sonora to more surging classics like Derrick May's "Strings of Life," every niche of house was touched upon—be it piano-laced, vocal-heavy or built on a heavy ghetto bassline. All of which was impressive stuff not lost on the increasingly unhinged dance floor that appreciated each drop as if it were the last. It won't be. Especially now that it's settled in a fitting new home, Back to Basics will likely go on for a long while: the renewed vibrancy of its comeback party is only testament to that.